


Books & Candlelight

by pandamonium



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 08:58:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6148321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandamonium/pseuds/pandamonium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having obtained all three Circle tomes the Herald fetched for her, Vivienne shares a bottle of wine and some conversation with the Inquisition's ambassador.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Books & Candlelight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ruinasive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruinasive/gifts).



> Request #3: It could be Vivienne watching everything from her balcony on Skyhold, maybe with a glass of fine wine while judging everyone and everything in silence or reading a book about magic or even one of the Varric's novels. Being as fabulous as she can be.

It was an hour after dinner, and the sun had set beyond the reaches of Skyhold, the light sinking into a gentle blue as the day moved past the mountains. Vivienne had taken her meal with the Inquisitor and Seeker Pentaghast and now she sat on her own, reflecting on the day's events. Tomorrow, Vivienne's friend would leave Skyhold, aiding Cassandra on a quest related to the missing Seekers. Vivienne would remain behind.

Vivienne did not fear inactivity, however. Between the discussion of Caer Oswin and speculations regarding the missing Seekers the Inquisitor had given Vivienne a gift, the third and final in a series. Despite their own ill-educated views on the Circles, the Inquisitor had never been so childish as not to extend Vivienne a favour.  And Vivienne was, undoubtedly, grateful.

Returned to Vivienne's possession were three books that had been raided after the Circles had fallen. With the strength of the Montsimmard Circle in tatters, Bastien fading ever farther from the public eye, and Celene's new infatuation with the hedge mage from the Korcari Wilds, Vivienne alone would not have had the influence to locate these books. Not at this point in time, and time was precious.

Vivienne ran her hands down the spine of the tome lying in her lap. It was large, and the red binding had slightly faded in the sun and wrinkled from the rain. The Herald had found the book lying on a table in a destroyed fortress in the Hinterlands, left to the will of the elements. Months had passed since then and Vivienne had managed to restore it to a certain degree.

Next to her bed, perched on an end table, were two other books including the one the Herald had just located in the Western Approach. That book would require more work than the other two but Vivienne was eager to begin repairing it. It was a book she'd been searching for since its abduction, in the hope that it had been taken and not lost in a fire. Its pages held answers to many questions perched resting on Vivienne's tongue.

"Madame Vivienne?" a polite voice spoke up from the stairs. Vivienne lifted her head from her books and glanced at her visitor. The ambassador stood there, her golden dress shining gently in the dim lighting of the candles Vivienne had found increasing need for as the sun had set. In her hands, Josephine was holding a bottle of Orlesian wine. She smiled. "You had requested some red wine be set aside for you; I trust a bottle from Duke de Freyen's Vineyard is to your satisfaction?"

Skyhold's steward guarded the cellar like a jealous lover, valuing quantity above all else. The Tevinter mage, Dorian, had absconded with two dozen bottles from the Inquisition's storage, leaving Josephine with a minor calamity to sort out with the steward. Vivienne chose diplomacy, and diplomacy won out. Vivienne swung her body to place her feet on the floor, setting her book aside.

"It is indeed, thank you my dear," Vivienne murmured, accepting the bottle graciously. Josephine smiled sweetly at Vivienne as she turned to go. Vivienne, leaned forward then, and asked in a mixture of politeness and idleness, "Would you like a glass?"

"You wish to drink it now?" Josephine asked, a little bemused. Vivienne shrugged delicately, as it certainly hadn't been her plan.

"I've cherished the chance to drink real wine, or at least something beyond what vinegar Skyhold's steward keeps in stock," Vivienne said. "I have no plans tomorrow and this is a vintage to be shared in good company."

"In that case, thank you," Josephine smiled, gingerly pulling one of Vivienne's chairs closer to her bed so she could sit across from the mage. "I would love a glass." Vivienne smiled as she stood to take two goblets from her desk. She poured a drink for Josephine, breathing in the alcohol's sharp, sweet perfume. It _was_ a good vintage.

"What are you reading, if you don't mind my asking?" Josephine inquired as she was handed her glass. Josephine was constantly working, but in her free time the woman often spoke with her colleagues, particularly the ones who went in the field. Josephine adored stories, and Vivienne appreciated Josephine's genuine interest.

"After the Circles fell their libraries were plundered by scavengers. I had the Inquisitor retrieve a few tomes for me, and now they are once again reunited in the Circles' possession," Vivienne explained smoothly. "Of the three tomes I've managed to locate, I received the last from the Exalted Plains today."

"Is it this one?" Josephine asked, eyes on the tome that was clearly distinct from the rest based on its care. Vivienne's upper lipped curl as she gently picked up the book from the end table and placed it in her lap. She felt no rush to reply to Josephine. The night was calm and the wine was warm on her lips and tongue.

She hadn't had time to look at the book properly before Josephine arrived, but she found that in addition to the dirt characteristic to the Plains there was still ash dusted across the cover. Vivienne could remember the sour smell found in the Tower's library still today, the scent of rotten meat and ashes. Montsimmard had always been so dynamic, but it had been quiet that day, empty with death.

The bandits had raided the library before Vivienne had, stepping over the charred remains of the Tranquil, mages, and Templars just as she had. The Circle's archivist, a woman whom Vivienne had liked but for guilt's sake whose name she couldn't recall, had been slaughtered, had become one charred body amongst the mountains of ash in the Circle's rebellion. All the books Vivienne had recovered had tasted such ash.

So much waste, and some bandit had come back for a book. Some apostate, for who else would care to return to books on magic. Vivienne's grip tightened on the book in her grasp. She wondered about their thoughts, what they could possibly think, about the destruction they had wrought. She turned the book over in her hands, running her fingers across its' blackened spine. Magic was like fire.

"Are you alright?" Josephine asked, Vivienne having stayed in silence just a moment too long.

"A thousand years of recorded knowledge in the hands of bandits," Vivienne explained. "It makes me sick to think of it." She carefully handed Josephine the book, and with free hands brought her glass to her lips, taking another moderate sip. "This tome, for example, is about the Fade."

"The Fade?" Josephine echoed, leaning in and taking a drink from her own glass. Vivienne nodded, letting the ill feelings wash away from her with the wine.

 _"'Tranquility and the Role of the Fade in Human Culture,'"_ Vivienne murmured. "By First Enchanter Josephus. Few mage writers exercise as much restraint and respect in their writing as he. This book is a well-versed study on the relationship between humans and the Fade throughout recorded history." Josephine turned the book over in her hands.

"I've never understood Tranquility," she confessed. "Cassandra attempted to explain it to me once, but she gave me the impression that she doesn't fully understand it either, despite being a Seeker. Have you had much experience with the Tranquil?"

"Of course, my dear, every mage worth anything at all has had experience with the Tranquil," Vivienne spoke softly. Many mages learned to despise the Tranquil, out fear and revulsion of what they represented, and enough took advantage of the conduct characteristic to the Tranquil. To mages, from Ostwick to Monstimmard, to the hedge mages scattered across Thedas, Tranquility represented weakness: inability to either fight Templar oppressors or to win against demonic possession.

But Vivienne found it took a certain kind of strength to admit weakness and fallibility, a quality shared by all Tranquil if not before the Rite then after it. Vivienne had studied and trained hard in her childhood to avoid Tranquility and Ostwick furthering its control over her personhood. But she could not find it in her to blame those that were not blessed with the strength to win in a battle of wills between the demons and the Templars. What mattered to Vivienne was that _she_ had the strength, and she would do with her strength what she willed.

"The Tranquil are mages that have been separated from the Fade," she explained, though she was willing to lend Josephine the heavy tome. "Being given a lyrium brand renders them non-magical and thus completely undesirable to demons that would possess them."

"So the Tranquil can be possessed?" Josephine asked. Vivienne frowned, heart heavy. The purpose of Tranquility was to void potential possession and Vivienne had thought that it was a method that was successful absolutely. There was still much left to be learned. She cleared her throat.

"After the Circles rebelled the majority of my brethren abandoned the Tranquil," Vivienne said, knowing as well that many of her brethren had _killed_ the Tranquil in their war against the Templars. Josephine clasped her hands together in quiet dismay.

"Many of those Tranquil were captured and killed by the Tevinters that are so prevalent nowadays for a ritual that would illuminate certain hidden artifacts," Vivienne continued. "This ritual involved forcing a Tranquil possession just prior to their death." Josephine's expression informed Vivienne that the ambassador was familiar with the horror the Inquisitor had uncovered in Redcliffe. Vivienne continued, "I hadn't thought it was possible, but possession and Tranquility is a complicated subject. Hence my delight that this book was located. It may hold some answers."

Josephine nodded solemnly. "It's fortunate that the Inquisition has provided somewhat of a haven to some of the Tranquil," she murmured. The Inquisition's original Creature Researcher Minaeve had always worked closely with the Tranquil until she retired to her studies in Skyhold, passing her post onto Helsima, a Tranquil woman she respected. Josephine handed the book back to Vivienne who set it aside. As Josephine leaned forward her eyes fall on another tome Vivienne had collected.

 _"'An Alchemical Primer of Metallurgy: Volume One,'"_ Josephine read aloud, "written by Lord Cerastes of Marmas Pell." She looked at Vivienne, eyebrow quirked with some curiosity. Marnas Pell was a city on the coast of the Nocen Sea, further south than Minrathous but still very much part of the Imperium. Vivienne supposed that it surprised Josephine to see her reading a Magister's work.

"One of the few Tevinter books on magic that is worth reading," Vivienne said. "Though, one doesn't need to be a mage to practice alchemy. It certainly helps, however." Josephine tenderly took the book from Vivienne's end table and threaded her fingers through the fragile pages, coming across one section of the book which Vivienne had marked.

 _"'The lustrous, white-blue silverite has long been prized by the dwarves for use in jewellery, rune-making, and weapon smithing,'"_ Josephine read aloud, her accent curling around each word. _"'but on the surface, it is more commonly used by apothecaries and healers.'"_ Her gaze passed over the notes stacked by Vivienne's bedside, on top of books and next to candles. Only the least observant of people would overlook Vivienne's work, and Vivienne found no reason to lie to the Ambassador, though plenty reason to keep some of the truth.

"I require silverite for an alchemical solution I am attempting to isolate," Vivienne said, dismissing Josephine's unspoken questions with a flick of her wrist. An ingredient Vivienne sought to use had gone extinct, and its substitute was highly toxic. Silverite, in addition to making brilliant and versatile armor, was used often for its ability to counteract most poisons.

It would be at least a fortnight before the Inquisitor would find time to collect the final component for which the rest of the compound's viability hinged on. Until then, Vivienne had nothing to do but turn to her books and study. "I've also had little opportunity to practice alchemy for a great many years. This series is an excellent resource, and I enjoy reading," Vivienne added, sacrificing one confession for the other. "Studying has always brought me peace of mind when all else has failed." She was adept at channeling fury into enrichment.

Josephine nodded, and Vivienne caught a hint of wistfulness in her expression. "And what of you, darling?" she asked. "You own a rather immodestly-sized library yourself." Josephine laughed. Vivienne was surrounded with books and alchemy notes now, but for as long as Vivienne had known the ambassador, even back in the Imperial Court, Josephine had always surrounded herself with books and papers.

"I try to make more of an effort to converse with people now," Josephine said. "But ever since my youth I've held a great fondness for books. As it turns out, people tell just as good stories if you have the courage to speak with them, and that indeed one can even forge their own stories." She looked down at the tome in her hands. "Which I've had little opportunity to do, as of late."

"We must certainly rectify that," Vivienne said. "I will be visiting Val Royeaux sometime this week. If you are free, perhaps you would like to accompany me?"

"I would like that," Josephine smiled, nodding. "Perhaps I will take a book along and catch up on my reading. There's no reason that one can't adventure _and_ read adventures."

"Quite right, my dear," Vivienne replied. Josephine beamed, the wine no doubt beginning to affect her.

She turned the book she was holding around in her hands, feeling the edges. Vivienne could almost see and smell the sand of the east, and she wondered if Josephine could as well. "This tome was located in the Western Approach in the possession of raiders," Vivienne explained. "Fortunately, it has been reclaimed by the Inquisition."

"As have many things lost in the sand of the Western Approach. Recently Knight-Captain Rylen of Griffon Wing Keep sent us a letter noting the morale of his soldiers," Josephine spoke up. "I offered to send them books so they could set up a small library."

"To serve as a distraction from the sand and sick?" Vivienne mused. "I would not have rejected the idea, though I'm not sure how soldiers would appreciate the gesture."

"They were pleased to know that the world persisted beyond the Approach," Josephine said.

"In that case, you would do well to pass them along excess books which come into our possession," Vivienne murmured and Josephine nodded, taking another sip of wine. Having been so caught up in their discussion Vivienne had almost forgotten the purpose for Josephine's visit. She took a small sip of the favour, breathing in the heady scent.

She let her eyes close for a moment, letting the spiced sweetness burn her throat. The doors to her balcony were open, and a cold wind blew across Vivienne's room, scattering papers that had not been pinned to the floor beneath books or candle sticks. Vivienne hardly felt concerned, the comfortable silence and wine she and Josephine were sharing had put her to ease.

On Vivienne's end table, a candle's flame fluttered out leaving only a plume of gray smoke in its wake. Vivienne languidly waved a hand, bringing it back to life without a spark. When she turned her gaze back to Josephine, she noted the ambassador's lips hanging open with a little awe. Vivienne barely tried not to smirk.

It was a parlour trick, but one that never became old to non-mages who were dazzled rather than frightened. Perhaps that was a flaw of Josephine's; she had never dealt intimately with a Circle mage aside from Vivienne. She did not know to fear the power Vivienne possessed, and would recoil righteously if Vivienne ever spoke plainly about the mages. Nevertheless, Josephine's admiration was charming, if ill-placed.

"It's a useful skill," Vivienne allowed, feeling less pleased with herself. "One I learned when I was very young."

"Were you still living in Ostwick?" Josephine asked. Vivienne took a moment to admire the fact that Josephine remembered. Most people Vivienne spoke to only saw an Orlesian noble, though Vivienne made no attempt to hide her past. She expected no less from the Inquisition's ambassador to remember such details.

"Montsimmard was not merely a hall of learning for magic, but for the Game as well," Vivienne said. "Magic can be a detriment or an advantage for a mage amongst ordinary men, so it's common practice for apprentices and mages to light lamps and flames by their own magic in Montsimmard."

"And not so in the Ostwick Circle?" Josephine asked, allowing no word to pass unexamined.

"Each Circle has its customs," Vivienne replied easily. "Montsimmard has a - _had_ a far superior library to Ostwick. Maker willing one day it will again surpass its Northern counterpart in a context that is not related to destruction. But, for Ostwick's comparably scant library there were books enough to teach me what I needed to know, if not what I wished."

"So you were not taught to light candles by your Enchanters?" Josephine asked.

"Not so young," Vivienne said. "I was a child then. But, I wished to study late into the night and children are not given matches to play with."

"So you taught yourself to light fires?" Josephine asked, biting back a laugh.

"I was foolish," Vivienne trailed off. She had set her bed sheets on fire and had not been given supper for a week. One book had been charred beyond repair. "I was young. But it was one of the first things the Apprentices I worked alongside with were taught upon my arrival in Orlais. Everything has its place."

"So there was no place for lighting candles in Ostwick?" Josephine asked, good humour falling to concern. "Did it make the Templars uncomfortable?" Vivienne adored Josephine, but this attitude was something she found intolerable. Despite what the well-intentioned believed, mages not only required oversight, but had an obligation to protect innocents from their power. Sacrifices made allowed a mage to retain her humanity, but so few understood that anymore and lesser still cared.

It had been almost a thousand years since magic had ruled Thedas and people had forgotten reality, mages and nonmages alike. But ordinary people that held mages to ideals were more violent when those expectations were dashed, betrayed. Seeing civilians, and even Templars, talk about mages as though they were not dangerous left Vivienne feeling unsettled and unsafe, waiting for the next mistake or attack from her people to draw the ire of those who had so trusted them.

"Naturally it makes some Templars uncomfortable to see mages so brazenly using their magic," Vivienne scoffed. Vivienne held the power to draw the life out of every occupant of Skyhold in the palm of her hand. "The fact that you do not feel similarly speaks of inexperience, not progressiveness, my dear."

"But it's only lighting candles," Josephine argued. The ambassador lit candles every day, fixing them upon her board as she worked. The smell of wax and flame had become characteristic to her, but Josephine knew nothing of fire.

"If only that were the truth," Vivienne lamented. Josephine frowned, clearly willing to launch into a more in-depth argument. But, the night wind was cool and Skyhold was quiet, with a bubble of voices scattered throughout the courtyard outside and the throne room below them. Josephine leaned back in her seat and cast her eyes to the ceiling.

"What of the last book?" she inquired, softly. It had no doubt been a long day for the ambassador; she had been working to insure safe and speedy passage to the Castle of Caer Oswin through Crestwood and the areas between villages. Vivienne turned to the final book still perched on the end table beside her. It was the first book the Inquisitor had brought to her; her fingers traced the edges as she opened it gingerly.

"This was found in the Hinterlands months ago," she replied. "A book written by Sister Petrine, a Chantry scholar, by the name _'Of Fires, Circles, and Templars: A History of Magic in the Chantry.'_ I highly recommend it, if you're interested."

"I may be," Josephine murmured, accepting the book from Vivienne. "I confess, my studies never focused much on the early history of the Circles and it has been something I've been intending to rectify."

"Then by all means please take it with you, my dear," Vivienne said. "It is one of the Circle's most treasured books." And it had been a book that had mattered dearly to Vivienne in her youth.

"Thank you," Josephine said, appreciating Vivienne's offer and what it signified. Then she noted, eyes narrowing with curiosity, "Forgive me, but I've noticed that these three books are not in Orlesian."

"Orlais is not Ferelden nor the Free Marches, thank the Maker," Vivienne said, barely stopping herself from rolling her eyes at the thought of her neighbours. "We speak multiple languages, and do not limit ourselves to knowledge only obtained from our own country."

"Of course," Josephine said, coming from Antiva and being multilingual herself.

"Only two of these books are from Montsimmard, however," Vivienne allowed. "The third is a book I read often back when I lived in Ostwick." If possible, the Ostwick Circle had suffered far worse than Montsimmard had when the Circles had rebelled. Someone Vivienne had dearly loved, a Senior Enchanter that had nurtured her in her youth, had been killed by one of her own apprentices. Vivienne was delighted to salvage even this one small thing.

"This one?" Josephine asked, her fingers carefully picking through the pages.

"It is indeed," Vivienne said. Josephine was silent for awhile. Vivienne could see that she was tired, likely still dizzy from the ink and papers she surrounded herself with during the day, and the wine they had shared."Before the Circles, mages used to live in the Chantry," Vivienne spoke up. "We, in fact, fought to live within the Circles."

"Is that so?" Josephine asked curiously, glancing at the book in her lap. Vivienne nodded. She could remember the relevant passages in the tome as clearly as she had when she was young, hungry, and angry, and learning about the reality of the Circle beyond what she felt. "I do remember being taught this in university, years and years ago." There would be no reason for Josephine to pay much mind to the theory of another person's life; it was not her story as intimately as it was Vivienne's.

"The Chantry of the Divine Age relied upon magic to kindle the eternal flame which burned in every brazier of every chantry in Thedas. But the mages," Vivienne chuckled, "were not so satisfied with so menial a task. We snuffed out the sacred flames of the Val Royeaux cathedral, and hid like rats as the Divine attempted to order an Exalted March."

"It was the Templars, in fact, that stayed her hand," Vivienne said. "The Inquisition of old. After two weeks spent on negotiations, mages left the Cathedral and took up residence in a remote fortress outside of the capital, the White Spire, under the eye of the Templars and a council of their own elder magi."

"Outside of normal society, mages formed our own _closed_ society, the Circle," Vivienne said. "And now, nearly a thousand years later, we have rejected it. It seems we will never be satisfied until we are able to destroy the world around us with impunity," Vivienne murmured, voice low and resentful. Josephine looked at Vivienne then, her eyes dark and curious.

"I'm glad your books have been returned, Madame de Fer," she spoke up after a long silence.

Vivienne frowned, nearly turning away from the ambassador. Vivienne usually demonstrated more discretion than she had just displayed, perhaps the wine or the dreamy night had loosened her tongue. Much of Vivienne's life now felt as though it was hanging suspended in the air. But Josephine said nothing else.

"Thank you, my dear," Vivienne said, watching the light of the candle flames flicker across her friend's face.

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings: brief descriptions of murder/death, implications of child abuse/neglect (because, you know, the Circles), and alcohol.  
> These books are all real codexes, http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_The_Fade, http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Silverite, and http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_History_of_the_Circle respectively.  
> I took a stab at the three subjects Vivienne would be the most interested in preserving or learning more about in DAI (the Fade for the Inquisition, alchemy for Bastien, and the history of the Circle).  
> Threw in some Josephine/Vivienne since it breaks my heart that Josephine and Vivienne (who knew each other from Celene's court) weren't better friends in Inquisition even though it would've been So Easy.  
> I hope this was something like what you wanted!


End file.
